Alexander w



No. 007,030. Patented July 12, I898. A. w. FUNK.

AUTOMATIC BRAKE AND SAFETY GUARD FOB VEHICLES.

(Application filed Feb. 12, 1897.)

(No Model.)

WITNESSES N0. 007,030. Patentd July 12, I898. A. w. FUNK.

AUTOMATIC BRAKE AND SAFETY GUARD FOR VEHICLES.

(Application filed Feb. 12, 1897.)

(No Model.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

we NORRIS Pcrzws co, womumon WASHINGTON, n c.

r'rn rates MICE ALEXANDER IV. FUNK, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR OFONEIIALF TO IVILLIAM E. SAUNDERS, OF SAME PLACE.

AUTOMATIC BRAKE AND SAFETY-GUARD FOR VEHICLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 607,030, dated July 12,1898. Application filed February 12,1897- Serial No. 623,085. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern.- tached to and depending from the yoke 0, Beit known that I, ALEXANDER W. FUNK, which rests upon the axle-boxes c inthe usual a citizen of the United States, residing at way. i Cleveland,in the county of Ouyahoga and D is the guard-frame, surrounding the 5State of Ohio, have invented certain new and wheels E and having theusual angular inuseful Improvements in Automatic Brakes clined front endd. This guard-frame is genand Safety-Guards for Vehicles; and I doerally required by law or ordinance to be athereby declare the followingto be a full, clear, tached to motor-cars and is usually rigidly andexact description of the invention, such attached to the car or truckandelevated some 10 as will enable others skilled in the art to whichinches from the ground to prevent it from it appertains to make and usethe same. scraping on the ground when the car rocks, My inventionrelates to apparatus for preas it often will on a rough track; but in myventing injury or loss of life from accidents device it is not rigidlyor directly attached to in the use of vehicles, being especially (16-the truck, but is suspended from a shaft car- I5 signed for use onmotor-cars operating in ried by the truck in a manner to be presentlystreets, but not necessarily confined to such described. On othervehicles than streetuses, as it is of much more general applicacars itneed not entirely surround the Wheels, tion and may be applied tohorseless carriages but may merely extend across in front of the andother vehicles. wheels. 7 20 The object of the invention is especiallyto F is the rear brake-beam, carrying brakeprotect pedestrians frominjury by rapidlyshoes f f of the ordinary kind. G is the formovingvehicles, whether on fixed tracks or ward brake-beam, carryingat eachend a shoe not; but it is also effective and useful for prog ofapproximately triangular form and havtecting the occupants of vehiclesfrom injury ing one side conforming to the periphery of 25 by collisionor other accidents, as from railthe wheel and its under side acounterpart of way-trains, motor-cars, obstructions, or open the trackH. The rear brake is suspended drawbridges, &c. from the car-truck inthe usual way; but the The invention consists in the combination,forward brake-beam G is suspended from a construction, and arrangementof parts coopshaft I, journaled in suitable bearings, as 'i, 3o cratingto effect the foregoing objects, as hereon the axle-box frame, as seenmost clearly inafter fully described, and specifically pointin Fig. 4E.The brake-beams are connected ed out in the claims. in the usual manner,as by rods or chains jj, In the drawings my invention is shown as to theusualbrake-lever J and the usual spool applied to a street-car, fromwhich its applij having ratchet and dog 7' and thus consti- 3 5 cationto other vehicles will be readily undertute an ordinaryhand-brake,-which when the stood. v shaft I is in the suspendedposition, as shown Figure 1 represents a plan view of the sillin fulllines in Fig. 4, is operated bythe brakeframe of a motor-car upon thecar-truck havhandle 7' in the usual and ordinary manner ing my inventionapplied thereto, the motors of a hand-brake and with the ordinaryeffect. 40 and electrical connections being omitted for A shaft K,similar to I, is similarly supported greater clearness. Fig. 2 is a sideelevation, back of the middle of the truck, as in bearpartly brokenaway, of the same parts shown ings 2' and the guard-frame D is supportedin Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an end View of the same. therefrom inainannersimilarto that in which Fig. 4 is a detached view, partly in section,the brake-beam G is supported from shaft I. 45 showing the connection ofthe brake-shoes A grooved pulley L is affixed rigidly to shaft anddropping device. Fig-'5 is a detached 1, and a cord or chain Z issecured to an eye plan view of the winding device and latch. or shortarm 70, rigid with shaft K and pass- Fig. 6 is a view of the same inelevation. ing thence to and once at least around pulley A representthetop chord of the car-truck, L is wound upon a spool m, carried on ashaft 50 on which rests the sill-frame a of the car-body. m fixed at thefront of the forward platform B is the side bar of the axle-box frame,atjust within the dashboard of the car.

Depending beneath the front of the for ward platform is an apron O,which may be of wood or metal, such as a wire grating or similarstructure, but to be both light and strong. The apron O is hinged orsuspended so as to swing freely and extends to within a few inches ofthe ground. A cord or chain 0 is attached to the apron and carried toone end of a lever 91, which is secured to the carplatform, and at itsother end engages a notch in a disk m rigidly attached to the shaft m Bywinding up the cord or chain Z on the spool m the shafts I and K areturned so as to lift the forward brake-beam and the guardframe D, whichis connected to the brakeshoes 9 by means of pins or bolts g on thelatter passing through slots (Z on the guardframe. hen the shafts I andK are brought to the position shown in Fig. 4, in which the eye 19 andarm 7a are nearly vertical, but slightly back of the vertical position,the le ver a is forced into engagement with the notch in disk m whichhas the effect of raising the other end of the lever, and therebyslightly raises the apron O, which is held in the raised position by theweight of the brake and guard-frame on the chain Z tending to unwind thespool on. The lever 01 thus acts as a latch to hold the brake andguard-frame suspended.

To prevent accidental disengagement of the latch n by jolting of the caror other causes without the apron 0 being struck and also to avoid thederangement of the latch and strain on its pivots by the constant pullof disk m on the latch, I provide a catch 11*, (shown in Figs. 5 and(3,) which bears against the forward side of the latch, and beingslightly inclined or bent so as to partially overlap above the latchexercises some retaining force on the latch and increases the forcerequired to free it from disk m By this means the latch is renderedsecure against any pull on the cord 0, caused by jolting, &c., butyields instantly to the pull caused by an actual blow on the apron O orto the pressure of the foot on lever n.

The safety device is now set, and should a person walking or a bodylying in front of the car be struck the apron will be forced backward,thereby pulling down the cord 0 and freeing lever 02 from engagementwith disk m whereupon the spool on will instantly unwind and thebrake-beam G and guardframe D will fall, shoes g g resting upon theground or track and the frame D within an inch or two of the ground. Assoon as the shoes 9 touch the rail upon which they fall the wheel willride upon the shoe and a most effective track-brake is produced,stopping the car almost instantly. The instant drop ping of the guardframe when the apron is struck prevents the body from passing under theguard and getting under the wheels, as has often occurred where theguard-frame is fixed upon the truck in the usual way.

Any of the usual fenders of the scoop class may be used in connectionwith the abovedescribed apparatus. Those which are operated by atripping device merely need to have the apron O substituted for thespecial tripping apparatus employed therein, and those which actindependently of a tripping device may simply be attached between theapron O and the guard-f ram e, the parts herein described continuing toperform the functions above set forth in either case.

The apparatus hereinabove described is not dependent for its action uponthe contact of any body with the apron, but may be operated by themotorman or driver by simply pressing on lever n with his foot, when thebrake and guard-frame will be dropped by the releasing of the disk m asthe lever is disengaged. In this manner a vehicle thus equipped can bealmost instantly stopped-- as, for instance, to avoid a threatened collision with other vehicles or to avoid striking obstructions, pedestrians,the.

A feature of advantage pertaining to my invention is that the brake andguard-frame can be raised into their usual places and set again by themotorman or driver without leaving the car by applying a handle to theshaft m whereas in other tripping safety devices they require to bereset from the ground and cannot be reset from the platform Theconnection between the shaft I and brake-beam G and between shaft K andthe guard-frame D is preferably by means of eyes 1) p on the shafts andcorresponding eyes 13 on the beam and frame, curved links 19 whichengage the eyes 19, and links or a short. chain 19 which flexiblyconnect the curved link with the eyes 19. The object of thisconstruction is that when the shafts I and K are turned so as to suspendthe brake-beam and guard-frame in the set position the eye p standsnearly vertical or slightly inclined backward and the link 13 drawnnearly in line with the support of the shaft, and thus exerts but littlepull on the shaft, yet enough to cause it to turn instantly when thedisk m is released. The cord or chain I is preferably composed of rodsjoined by chains where connected to arm and where it passes aroundpulley L and spool m.

To increase the traction of the shoes g 011 the track and preventskidding of the car or other vehicle, a sand-box B may be attached tothe truck and a hose or pipe 1 led therefrom to discharge sand in frontof or preferably beneath the shoe, as seen in Fig. 4, a slide S beingconnected by a rod 3, as shown in Fig. 1, or a chain 5 as shown in Fig.at, to eyes or arms 23 on shaft I, as shown, so that as the shaftrevolves to drop the brakeshoes and guard-frame the slide S will bedrawn and sand will be discharged 011 the track. For this purpose anopening or channel is made in the shoe g, extending from the bottom ofthe shoe part or all of the Way to the top thereof, and to the upper endof such channel the flexible pipe 1' is connected, as

seen in Fig. 4. The sand is thus dropped exactly at the point where itis to act, and none of it is wasted by falling beside the rail, as someof it might be if discharged in front of the shoe, which, however, isalso within my invention. The slide S may be arranged to close by aspring 3 or by the direct action of its connection to shaft I, aspreferred. It is to be understood that the sand-box is not an essentialfeature, but merely an auxiliary device acting in conjunction with theessential and novel feature of my invention and Which may be dispensedwith, if desired, without affecting my invention.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with a vehicle of a brake having shoes adapted to actas wheelbrakes or as track-brakes, a shaft from which the brake issuspended, an arm or drum on said shaft, a guard or fenderposteriorlysuspended and extending before the wheels and supported anteriorly onsaid brake-shoes, a chain suspending said brake from said shaft, a chainsecured to said drum and to a winding-spool, a latch engaging said spooland retaining it in the wound up position, and means for tripping saidlatch to drop the brake and guard, substantially as described.-

2. The combination with a vehicle of a brake having shoes adapted to actas wheelbrakes or as track-brakes, a shaft from which the brake issuspended, an arm or drum on said shaft, a guard or fender extendingbefore the wheels and suspended at its rear part from a shaft andintermediately upon said brakeshoes, a chain attached to said shafts andsecured to a winding-spool, a latch retaining said spool in the Wound-upposition, and

means for tripping said latch to drop the brake and guard, substantiallyas described.

3. The combination, with a vehicle, of a brake having shoes adapted toact as atrackbrake, a shaft from which the brake is suspended, an armordrum on said shaft, a guard or fender extending before the wheels and issuspended, a guard extending before the 5. The combination with avehicle of a brake having shoes adapted to act as wheelbrakes or astrack-brakes, ashaft from which the brake is suspended, an arm or drumon said shaft, a guard or fender extending before the wheels andsuspended at its rear part from a shaft and intermediately upon saidbrake-shoes, a chain attached to said rear shaft and to said arm or drumand secured to a Winding-spool, a latch retaining said spool in thewound-up position, and an apron depending from the front of the vehicleand connected to said latch, substantially as described.

6. The combination with the brake mechanism of a vehicle, of the shoesadapted to act as a wheel-brake and a track-brake, a shaft from whichthe brake-beam carrying the track-shoes is suspended, a pulley on saidshaft, a shaft carrying a Winding-spool and a notched disk, a chainsecured to said spool and rotating said pulley and shaft to suspend thebrake, a latch engaging said notched disk, and a swinging apronconnected to said latch for tripping the same, substantially asdescribed.

7. The combination with the brake mechanism, of the shoes adapted to actas a wheelbrake and a track-brake, a shaft from which the brake-beamcarrying the track-shoes is suspended, a pulley on said shaft, a guardextending before the wheels, a rock-shaft from which said guard issuspended, a shaft carrying a winding-spool and a notched disk, a chainsecured to said rock-shaft and said spool and passing around saidpulley, a latch engaging said notched disk, and a swinging apronconnected to said latch, whereby the latch is tripped when the apron isswung and the brake and guard are simultaneously dropped, substantiallyas described.

8. The combination with a vehicle of a brake having shoes adapted to actas trackbrakes, a shaft from which said shoes are sus pended, a chainattached to said shaft and to a winding-spool, a latch retaining saidspool in the wound-up position, a sand-box discharging immediatelybeneath said brakeshoe and having a valve or cut-off connected to saidshaft, and means for tripping said latch, whereby the brake is droppedand the sand-box opened simultaneously, substantially as described.

9. The combination with a vehicle of a brake having shoes adapted to actas trackbrakes, a shaft from which said shoes are suspended, a chainattached to said shaft and to a winding-spool, a latch retaining saidspool in the wound-up position, a sand-box discharging immediatelybeneath said brakeshoe and having a valve or cut-0E connected to saidshaft, and a depending apron connected to said latch for tripping thesame, substantially as set forth.

10. The combination with a vehicle of a brake having shoes adapted toact as trackbrakes, a shaft from which said shoes are sus' pended, achain attached to said shaft and to a Winding-spool, a notched diskrigid with said spool, a latch engaging said disk and retaining thespool in the Wound-up position, a sand-box dischargingimmediatelybeneath said brake-shoe and having a valve or cnt-ol'f connected to saidshaft, and a depending apron connected to said latch for tripping thesame, substantially as set forth. 10

In testimony whereof I hereto aflix my signature in presence of twoWitnesses.

ALEXANDER \V. FUNK. \Vitnesses:

II. B. CAVANA'UGI-I, J OHN N. WYLER.

